X-Box 2 - No HD and No Backwards Compatibility
- Thread starter Doaln
- Start date
i mean that instead of having let's say a $60 HD in the console, they can sell the flash drives for far more than they cost. remember how microsoft used to be losing money on every xbox sold because of all the shit in there? now that stuff will be out. say that a 1 GB flash drive costs $15 in 2 years. MS can sell that shit for $30. pure profit and they'll have a monopoly on it.Ixiterra said:We've already established that flash memory is significantly more expensive than HD space.So I doubt they're going to be making any killings. Not unless they only include 64MB or something. Besides, I think it's fairly standard nowadays for the console companies to be losing/breaking even on every console they sell (PS2 probably earns a bit of money since it's fairly outdated and cheap to make). The big bling comes from game sales.
doaln get off the fact that microsoft might make money. I highly doubt they will. When xbox came out Bill Gates said that making money wasnt very high on the list. The great thing about microsoft is that they make so much money that they can take a huge loss and they are fine with that.
A monopoly on what? I just checked, a 1GB flash drive is $205 on newegg. With Microsoft's buying ability, I'd say the best rate they could get now would be, minimum, $70 or so. Especially with how volatile memory prices are, I would not place any bets on them being able to get it for $15 in two years. It also makes modding and putting games on these flash cards (assuming you can swap them) much less cost effective.
I just checked, a 1GB flash drive is $205 on newegg. With Microsoft's buying ability, I'd say the best rate they could get now would be, minimum, $70 or so. Especially with how volatile memory prices are, I would not place any bets on them being able to get it for $15 in two years. It also makes modding and putting games on these flash cards (assuming you can swap them) much less cost effective.Exactly. And you have to remember they took a loss on the hardware. That certainly doesn't mean Xbox lost them money, though I do remember hearing that Xbox licenses were supposed to be extremely cheap, but it's basically a lead-in to Xbox2 where developers will be paying millions just to get the license, then large chunks of the game sales as well.Varnish said:
i'm saying its good from a MS perspective. lower hardware costs and increased profit, it's win-win for MS.[MiSFiT-RG-] said:
MS can afford to lose money on Xbox because they make it up in games. that's what they've done since xbox started. this time though, the system will probably lose far less money per unit, or even make money.
You'd think by the time the X-Box 2 comes out there would be smaller hard drives. Take the iPod for example: 40GB Hard Drive, .62 inches wide and the size of your palm.
Although, you'd probably have to take in account that the size of game CDs may double, possibly tripple..
Although, you'd probably have to take in account that the size of game CDs may double, possibly tripple..
? the xbox is going to cost the $200 or $250 or whatever their target price was. then you have to buy the memory cards for it just like you do the PS1/2 or GC memory cards now if you want to save. that means basically EVERYONE.Ixiterra said:
so if MS sees that 512mb flash cards should be more than adequate for save game needs, and they cost $10 to make, they can sell them for $20, $30, or $40 and people HAVE to buy them. they can probably even do shit like Lexmark is to fight off generics since they have the money. there are also other ways they could force you into buying their memory cards (like making them the only ones that'll work with xbox live).
I hope everyone realizes that if it wasn't for the extreme moddibility of the X-Box, it very likely would have died an early death, ala Dreamcast. I'm sure you remember the lack of really decent game on the X-box for a long while (with the exception of Halo and a couple of others)
Now that they have their foot in the door, they can basically say piss off, at least until someone comes up with some gadget that takes the flash interface and changes it to IDE/Serial ATA, and writes emulation to run X-box 1 games on the X-box 2.
Now that they have their foot in the door, they can basically say piss off, at least until someone comes up with some gadget that takes the flash interface and changes it to IDE/Serial ATA, and writes emulation to run X-box 1 games on the X-box 2.